How to Put Movies onto Your iPad or iPhone Without iTunes

The iPad is perfect for watching movies when you are on the go. This is how you can put movies on your iPad without iTunes. You can use a cloud service and now you can even easily download movies from Netflix and other services right to your iPad or iPhone

If you use iTunes, you need to convert your movies and then sync them with iTunes, which can take a while and be cumbersome. Of course, if you buy movies from the store on your iPad it will sync directly, but for other movies, you’ll need this guide.

Here are the methods that you can use that completely avoid iTunes. The iPad can only play certain video file types, but you can download and install video players on your iPad that will play any file type you throw at it, getting rid of the need to convert movies to the correct file type in the first place. This guide also includes a method that does all the converting before transferring the movies to your iPad.

Here’s how to transfer movies to your iPad or iPhone

Use Netflix to put movies on your iPhone or iPad without iTunes.

without using iTunes.

Put Movies on Your iPad Using a Cloud Storage Service

The easiest way to put movies onto your iPad without using iTunes is by using Dropbox, Google Drive or other cloud storage service. It’s also a method that takes the most time and the movie must be in a file format that your iPad can recognize (.MP4 and .M4V).

This method requires you to have the app of the cloud storage service on your iPad, so if you use Dropbox, be sure to download and install the Dropbox app from the iTunes App Store. Furthermore, you can download and install the desktop app on your computer. Otherwise, you’ll be using the web interface.

To use cloud storage to transfer a movie to your iPad, simply just copy and paste the movie file into your Dropbox folder on your computer. Depending on the file size and the speed of your internet connection, the movie could take a few minutes to a few hours to sync to Dropbox.

Once it’s synced, you’ll then be able to access it in the Dropbox app on your iPad. From there, you either watch it directly in the Dropbox app or watch it in the Videos app on your iPad.

To watch the movie directly in the Dropbox app, you can begin playing it in the app if you have an internet connection. Otherwise, you’ll need to tap on the star icon in the upper-right corner and save the movie to the Dropbox app in order to watch it offline.

Save the movie to your iPad.

If you want to export the movie to your iPad and watch it in the Videos app on your iPad, you’ll need to tap on the Share icon in the upper-right corner and then tap on Save Video.

Using Third-Party Software

Perhaps the quickest and easiest way to get movies onto your iPad without using iTunes is taking advantage of some third-party software. WALTR makes it really easy to transfer files to your iPad, and we’ve covered it in the past.

After downloading and installing WALTR, plug in your iPad to your computer and fire up WALTR. It should automatically detect your iPad.

From there, click on the + icon in the middle of the window. Find the movie that you want to transfer to your iPad and click Open.

From there, the movie will be converted into a file format that your iPad can natively recognize if it isn’t already, and then it will be transferred to your iPad. Depending on the size of the movie, this could take a few minutes.

When it’s done, WALTR will say that the movie uploaded to your iPad successfully.

Now, open up the stock Videos app on your iPad and you should see your movie there ready to be watched.

The metadata for the movie may or may not show up, as it depends if that info is embedded into the file, but the only important thing is that the movie plays, and it should without any problem. Newer versions of the software can automatically fill in the information about the movie.

Download Netflix Movies To Your iPad or iPhone

You can download movies and TV shows from Netflix directly to your iPad so that you can watch them when you are offline, like on a plane or in a car and you don’t want to use your data.

Open the Netflix app.

Find a movie you want on your iPad.

Tap on the movie title.

On the next screen tap the Download button.

Wait for the movie to download.

If it is a TV show, you can choose which episodes to download individually. Not all movies and TV shows are available to download on Netflix, but many of them are. It’s the easiest way to get movies on your iPad without iTunes.

Original reporting and contributions by Craig Lloyd. Updated July 2018 with new options and how to transfer to iPhone.

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16 Comments

Both those programs cost so please don’t say they’re free. The Player Xtreme downloads for free but you have to pay 3.50 to upgrade to pro in order to hear sound so unless you’re the silent type, it’s not free.

I think WALTR to be a great alternative. Especially for those, who don’t like to look into complicated apps, I copy movies to iPad without iTunes in a matter of seconds, I’m happy to have installed it!

As for third party apps to put movies on iPad, FonePaw iOS Transfer is pretty good for copying movies to iPad without iTunes. It supports all the formats, quick in installation and simple in use. For me it works the best, definitely recommend!

It worked perfectly for me no charge for anything for either apps. If you follow the directions perfectly it will work, sound and everything for my ipad air. i hate itunes and this is so much more helpful. Actually player xtreme will give you a free upgrade to pro if you give a good review on i tunes

How to Add Videos to VLC on the iPad by Steve Gregory, Demand Media Google Although an iPad comes with built-in apps that allow users to view video content, the device also allows the installation of third-party video players, such as the VLC media player. The VLC player can play many video file formats, including AVI and MPG files. If you want to add videos for the VLC player on your iPad, you must connect the device to iTunes on a computer that already has the video files you want to add to the player.

I use Sunshine and is really simple. You download it on Mac and iPad and then send the files both ways. For movies it has a really cool feature that allows sharing a movie from Mac into iPad without downloading it in like 5 seconds! There is no size limit, it’s free and works with Android, iPhone and Windows too.https://www.sunshineapp.com/

This sucks so bad, as I’m trying to upload a movie, it isn’t working, and there’s no help on any website. I did and follow the step by step program. You fire up waltr and plug in your iPad and drag a movie. And as I’m dragging there’s no + icon on the waltr app. And when I drag a movie it has an icon that says it can’t be done.